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Radiation Drug Has Sales Increase After Trump's Big Button Tweet

Conservatives are defending President Trump’s decision to taunt the leader of North Korea on Twitter as a stroke of genius intended to scare the dictator away from launching nuclear weapons against the US. But if the sales of a radiation drug treatment are any indication, it seems that Trump’s tweet also scared the bejesus out of ordinary Americans.

Potassium iodide is a fixture on the World Health Organization’s list of essential medicines. It’s approved by the FDA for over the counter use, and it has many applications. In the event of a nuclear accident, or two mad men lobbing nukes at each other, radioactive iodine fills the air around the site of the incident. Potassium iodide helps prevent future health issues caused by nuclear fallout, like thyroid cancer, by saturating the body with stable iodide and preventing uptake of the radioactive iodine in the thyroid. No, it’s not a magical drug that protects you from nuclear fallout, but it helps.

NPR recently reached out to distributors of the drug to see how sales have been going since Trump tweeted, “North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the ‘Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.’ Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!” As it turns out, business is booming.

Troy Jones, proprietor of nukepills.com, told the reporters that he sold a month’s supply, about 140,000 doses of potassium iodide, in 48 hours following Trump’s tweet. Jones’s sales to government agencies, hospitals and universities, weren’t included in that figure.